Disaster Relief: 10 Tech Tools to Save Your Business

In August 2011, Hurricane Irene traveled up the East Coast, delivering high winds and drenching rain from the Carolinas to New York City as predicted. However, no one anticipated that many towns in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire and Vermont would be flooded for days, jeopardizing the IT systems -- and very existence -- of hundreds of small businesses. In Texas, meanwhile, a lack of water fueled wildfires that destroyed dozens more. 

And it's not just natural catastrophes that can wipe out your precious data: hard drives crash, PCs get stolen, viruses corrupt files and employees inadvertently (or maliciously) delete folders. You can protect your business from such calamity by preparing for disaster recovery in advance for events ranging from the unexpected to the unthinkable. These 10 small business technology products and services will help you do just that.

Be Prepared with Information and Resources

According to U.S. Department of Labor estimates, more than 40 percent of businesses never reopen following a disaster, and among those that remain, at least 25 percent will subsequently close in two years. But less dramatic causes of small business data loss and systems interruption can also negatively impact your business.

In fact, more than a third of business owners surveyed reported that IT downtime can harm customer loyalty, according to a study by Microsoft. Being able to reconstruct server- and PC-resident data, and implementing technologies that support business continuity, are crucial to keeping your business from being a statistic.

For its part, Microsoft has prepared a free disaster-preparedness guide tailored specifically to small business owners that covers the precautions to take for physical and virtual disasters, how to properly protect your business and alleviate the consequences of disasters, how to begin your own disaster preparedness plan and more. Further resources and information can be found from the U.S. Small Business Administration.

If your PCs and servers employ Microsoft operating systems, you already have several tools at your disposal to be ready for physical and virtual misadventures. "Windows 7 is Microsoft's most secure operating system to date, and it helps SMBs operate more efficiently with features that promote greater productivity, mobility and security," said Cindy Bates, Microsoft's U.S. SMB vice president. "An operating system that supports remote working and security becomes immensely valuable in times of disaster."

There are a range of features built into Windows 7 that promote disaster preparedness or aid in recovery. Job one, of course, is to back up your PCs and servers. Yes, there are excellent third-party backup/recovery products -- and we cover some of our favorites below -- but Windows has tools built in to handle some chores.

For example, the operating system's Advanced Backup and Restore features were enhanced in Windows 7 and offer file and full system image backup.  You can let the system automatically choose what to backup, or do it yourself at a very granular level.  Either way, it is much simpler to initiate than in previous Windows versions, and Microsoft claims faster and more accurate restoration.

Another important safeguard is to encrypt the data that resides on your employees' PCs, especially if they use laptops, in the event that a machine gets lost or stolen. The handy BitLocker and BitLocker-To-Go tools are built into Windows 7. These programs should be used to encrypt and secure your data, so that it can be read only by someone who has the right encryption key to unscramble it.

Another key consideration is keeping your business as functional as possible, even if your office has to be closed for days after disaster -- natural or otherwise. After Hurricane Irene, for example, many offices were unscathed, but flooded roads prevented employees from being able to get there for a week or more.

With Windows 7, you can set up Remote Desktop Connections for easy, secure access to desktop or server resources from locations outside the office. Remote Desktop Connections can also be established securely via a Web browser if personal, remote client machines are not accessible and you have to use more public computing resources.

The Remote Desktop interface gives the end-user the experience of working almost completely with local resources.  In the event of a physical disaster preventing access to your workplace, business can continue as usual.

On the server side, businesses that run on Windows Server 2008 R2 have a number of tools at their disposal. "Windows Server offers a comprehensive set of features for addressing the disaster recovery needs of small businesses during critical operation times," noted Bates. "Microsoft believes that server virtualization should be an integral part of any small business IT infrastructure."

Hyper-V, the virtualization technology included in Windows Server, allows you to have multiple "virtual" servers on one physical box. Should a drive in the server begin to fail, Hyper-V's Live Migration and Backup feature offers near real-time movement of critical workloads away from the failing media.

The Windows Server 2008 R2 version of the network operating system also delivers Windows Server Failover Clustering support, which lets you create server "clusters," where another server (either physical or virtual) seamlessly takes over should the primary server go down. As for backup, Windows Server 2008 R2 comes with Windows Server Backup, which can backup up your physical and virtual machines, without having to stop operations to perform a backup.

Even if you are able to rebuild your server image of restore files from a backup, all too often essential elements critical to the operation of a small business are lost. To be prepared, consider a product such as InformationSAFE Small Business Edition. Available in both desktop ($99.99) and in disaster-proof online versions ($79.99 per year), the product features predesigned templates to help you store vital business information for easy recovery.

The templates are organized into seven intuitive categories -- Business Info, Financial, Insurance, Legal, HR, Property and Key Contacts -- putting information that is usually spread across a range of electronic and paper sources together in one place. Your information is protected from hackers by AES encryption, and with the online version you can access your information from any computer.

On-site Data Backup

For day-in/day-out recovery from non-catastrophic threats such as system crashes, viruses and human error, an on-site backup solution is the most traditional route. If you want more features and control than Windows' built-in backup utilities provide, consider a dedicated backup manager such as those offered by the Retrospect product line.

A long-time player in this market, Retrospect offers a range of solutions tailored specifically to small businesses data backup needs. Retrospect Single Server ($679) protects a single Windows server and an unlimited number of Windows, Mac and Linux desktops and notebooks on the network.

Retrospect Small Business Server Standard ($479) protects a single Windows Small Business Server (including Exchange) and up to 20 desktops and notebooks. And for small businesses with just PCs to back up, Retrospect Professional ($119) protects up to three networked desktops and notebooks; you can add a Retrospect Client 5-Pack ($149) to protect additional PCs as needed.

Of course, software is just half the equation. You'll need something to back up to. If you're the paranoid type (which is likely given that you're reading this), consider a product such as the ioSafe SoloPRO external hard drive (starting at $249). Not only is the drive enclosure stylish, it's also fireproof and waterproof -- presumably to survive not just the fire but also the water that douses the flames.

The enclosure is rated to withstand exposure to temps of 1,550 degrees for up to 30 minutes, and survive in 10 feet of water for up to 72 hours. Your purchase price also gets you up to $2,500 worth of forensic recovery should disaster strike.

Of course, keeping data out of harm's way in the first place beats having it survive a fire and/or flood. That calls for a removable backup medium that lets you take the data set and store it off-site. A tape drive like the Dell PowerVault LTO-3-060 Tape Drive ($1,798) is still the most cost-effective solution for archiving serial backups.

This drive fits in an available drive bay of your server and stores up to 400GB of data on LTO-1, LTO-2 or LTO-3 tape cartridges. The included Symantec Backup Exec software lets you select which data to back up and how often to do so.

Leverage Cloud Computing

If you want the ultimate in off-site data protection, look to cloud computing. Online backup/storage services, or hybrid products that combine on-site and Web-based components, will help you survive and recover from disasters that wipe out your physical systems.

One of our favorite offerings is Carbonite Business. Unlike traditional daily or weekly backups, Carbonite continually backs up the files on your business PCs to the its secure data centers throughout the day. There's no intervention required by your employees, and you have complete visibility into (and control over) individual backups via the handy My Company Dashboard, where you can see your users, computers, storage in use, backup status and more.

Best of all, the pricing scheme for Carbonite Business can't be beat. Instead of paying per PC, you pick the plan that fits your storage needs -- 250GB for $229 per year or 500GB for $599 (which includes service for one Windows server) -- and protects as many machines as you need.

Another way to keep your documents protected is to have them reside in the cloud in the first place. With Microsoft Office 365, your data lives in the cloud, meaning that it's accessible virtually anytime, anywhere from any Internet-connected device.

This subscription-based service (starting at $6 per month per user) has tools that look and feel like the apps you're familiar with -- Word, Excel, Outlook and so on -- and lets all your employees securely and safely access email, important documents, contacts and calendars. If a natural disaster affects your physical office location, you can continue conducting many aspects of your business operations from any location, since Office 365 lets your employees work remotely.

But perhaps the best approach is one that blends on-site speed with online peace of mind. That's where a product like the SonicWall Continuous Data Protection Backup and Recovery Appliances (starting at $1,599) really shines.

The company designed the line with disaster recovery in mind, to protect your data -- not just locally but also off-site -- should the unthinkable happen. The system includes "agent" software that resides on each PC or server to be backed up, a self-contained network appliance to store the data and manage the backups, plus an optional cloud-based service to replicate data to secure off-site servers. If a disaster wipes out your PCs and your backup appliance, you can still retrieve your data.

Now that you have a plan to keep your electronic files safe from disaster, what about your paper documents? If they should be destroyed, discarded or misplaced, there's likely no way for you to replace them. So the first step is to digitize all that paper, organize it, and then back it up.

One of the easiest ways to do that is with a document management software such as PaperPort Professional 14 ($199/99) from Nuance Communications. With PaperPort and a scanner, you can turn paper files into electronic ones that can then be edited, organized and shared -- and most importantly, backed up via one of the solutions mentioned above.

Even better, the software works seamlessly with the PaperPort Anywhere online storage service, so electronic files you create are automatically synchronized to a secure off-site server.